Summary
In 2025/26 we will be focusing on our water rescue capability. Our risk assessment identified that we are a county that has a high number of inland water drownings. In the last five years we have seen a significant rise in the numbers of water rescues in the Medway towns. We want to put more resources in place to address this risk, as well as looking at whether our current resources are in the right place.
Update on actions
Make sure our water rescue resources are in the right area and have access to innovations in new equipment to conduct effective water rescues according to local risk profiles.
When we respond to a water rescue, we send a number of resources that are deployed in a staged way. We send the nearest fire engine. In addition, we send firefighters, who can enter the water in certain circumstances to rescue people. These firefighters are reinforced with more specialist crews (Water Safety Units) each of which carries a boat and are stationed around the county at Sheppey (Sheerness), Larkfield, Tonbridge, Whitstable, and Folkestone.
Sheppey use a small boat that is trailered to incidents by their Water Safety Unit (WSU). Formerly a water rescue station, Sheppey had a Fire Launch (a high-powered rigid inflatable boat), capable of operating at sea and on major rivers. As this was rarely used, it was removed from service and the WSU now use the smaller inland boat.
Maintaining a water rescue capability at Sheppey impacts:
- fire cover in Sheppey – when the crew are mobilised to a water incident, they are unavailable for fire calls in the locality
- training - the WSU requires a significant training commitment which can reduce fire appliance availability on Sheppey, necessitating moving a fire engine from Sittingbourne, impacting fire cover in that area.
Water rescue capability in Sheppey is also provided by the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) who provide an immediate 24/7 response around the Isle of Sheppey.
Most incidents that Sheppey’s Water Safety Unit attend are in other parts of the county. This means we must tow the boat from Sheppey. Often, this can be considerable distances to other areas. During this time, the need for the boat to be deployed has passed, and the incident has been resolved in a different way.
Time is a critical factor in water rescues because submersion in water is survivable in most circumstances for 30 minutes. It is therefore vital to minimise the time taken to get a water rescue asset on scene.
We have a dock on the River Medway in Strood where we have a rigid boat. This requires significant training time for crews to maintain competence. This boat is crewed by Larkfield fire station (due to previous training) which means it can take a long time to deploy.
We want to reduce the time it takes to get the right water rescue resource to scene and into the water and improve the speed of response in the water.
We have been exploring the use of Personal Watercrafts (PWCs) which are similar in appearance to a “Jet Ski”. PWCs can travel at high speed and can be equipped with rescue equipment for retrieving casualties and require less training time than powered boats. Because we want to ensure that we have water rescue coverage on both sides of the River Medway between Rochester motorway bridge and Sun Pier, the flexibility and speed of PWCs would offer this capability more effectively.